My review of the new Retina MacBook Pro was mostly positive but I was less than thrilled with the Force Touch trackpad. My biggest complaint is that the “Force” part is a bit difficult to master. I often end up applying a Force Touch when I really just want to drag something across the screen.
Right before I disabled the single-finger Force Touch, I found the setting to enable 3-Finger drag on OS 10.
Three years ago I opened my new 15" Retina MacBook Pro for the first time and loved it. The Retina screen is incredible. While bigger and heavier than many other models, it’s still one of the lightest and thinest laptops I’ve owned.1 I was worried it was a downgrade from a 27" iMac, but I still can’t see any reason to go back to an immobile desktop computer. I love the combination of power, portability and have a single canonical device.
Apple now details the requirements for third party bands. I doubt officially licensed bands will be all that much cheaper, given this:
Apple Watch lugs will be available soon through the Made for Apple Watch program.
The license terms seem relatively unencumbered though (minus the usual boilerplate about sublicensing).
From Fraser Spiers:
I was initially confused about this as it’s not obvious what puts it into each mode but here’s the rule: if you have a Keynote presentation open in Keynote on your iPhone when you launch the Watch app, it will control that presentation. If you’re looking at the Keynote file picker when you launch the Watch app, it will go into Keynote Remote Remote mode and start trying to connect to Keynote on your Mac or iPad.
I don’t wear a watch and don’t want to. If I was ignorant enough, I’d consider the Apple Watch just another Apple product launch. It would sell out and be very popular and all of my nerd friends would get it on launch day. I don’t think it’s going to be typical. I think it’s going to be huge.1
I’ve never seen so many non-tech people so excited about a piece of electronics.
It’s been quiet around here because I don’t care that much about watches. But one thing that I’ve been thinking about since the Apple tech parade was the introduction of the new MacBook design.
First thing’s, first: I love the idea of a single connection laptop. I hate cables. My current setup is a Retina MacBook Pro and a Thunderbolt monitor. The rMBP has a power cord and a Thunderbolt cable connected.
Synology 1815+ I’ve used the Synology 1812+ for 2 years and upgraded to the 1815+ the day it was released. The 1815+ is an 8-bay NAS device powered by the Synology DSM software and is currently around $1,000 on Amazon without any drives. The 1812+ originally cost me about the same amount and I’ve had no issues with it since the original purchase.
Why upgrade Does anyone ever really believe their reasons for upgrading?
Parents, this is for you. There’s still time to stock up on rechargeable batteries. Trust me, this is worthwhile. Every toy you will buy, including the stupid wooden, organic, heirloom, hypoallergenic toys will probably need batteries.
Get a good charger, like the NiteCore i4 and then buy a bunch of the Amazon Basics rechargeable AA batteries. I also like the eneloop Ni-MH AAA rechargeables.
What? You need C and D too?
Amazon is great but there’s a bunch of junk and a few gems. Occasionally I share some of the good stuff.1
I learned about Work Sharp knife sharpener from Cool Tools and it’s perfect for a cook that wants razor sharp knives but doesn’t want to spend a lot of time sharpening them. $64
Weber FireStarters are ridiculously good for starting a wood-burning fireplace. It only takes 2-3 little cubes to get the wood really burning good and for a little over $3 for an entire pack, it’s more economical than those paraffin and wood chip starters.
Use at your own risk, but these are pretty nice third party packages for Synology NAS. Many of them do not work with the latest DSM 5.1 beta but some do and they are great. I’m a huge dummy with an expensive hobby. Same as it ever was.
